Four Seasons In One Day
by mayfair22
Summary: "Not a thing…" Blair says pulling away from him, "I didn't feel a thing. You?"  He doesn't think he has in himself to lie at this point. Plausible deniability is Blair's forte, it could never be his. D/B, C/B. Dan's POV. Now chapter 2 with 15 years later.
1. Chapter 1

_AN- For anyone who has been reading my other Gossip Girl story (Across The Brooklyn Bridge), fear not, I haven't forgotten about it. In fact the next update for it is with my beta and should be up soon. This however, had to be written because of what just happened in the last episode and it's very different in style and content from the other story. It would be just a two shot however, after which I will put all my attention to the other one which still has 5-6 chapters to go._

_This hasn't been beta read, so all mistakes are my own._

_The title is from a song by Crowded House._

_Disclaimer- Disclaimed._

* * *

It just snowballs into a series of disasters…

First it's the holidays, and then there are the books and then there is one movie or twenty or so; There is pizza and shoulder cricks and then there are magazines left on the bed and conclusions being drawn and doubts mounting and there is that fateful kiss which shouldn't have happened.

"Not a thing…" Blair says pulling away from him, "I didn't feel a thing. You?"

He doesn't think he has in himself to lie at this point. Plausible deniability is Blair's forte, it could never be his, so he walks away without answering and she lets him go.

They don't see each other for two weeks after that and he has never missed _not_ being friends with any one more.

And then there she is…And he should have known. He should have known it was an omen…

For Blair Waldorf standing at his door, drenched to the bone at two in the morning is hardly an everyday event.

He is used to her coming to Brooklyn now, of entering uninvited and lightening up the entire loft just by an eye roll; what he is not used to is her standing there unsurely, making no move to come inside as the water from her hair steadily drips down to make a pool on his welcome mat.

It's so _not_ her that for a second he is almost paralyzed by something like fear.

"Oh! God Waldorf." He says, finding his voice back and grabbing her by the wrist to pull her inside, "What is wrong with you?"

She doesn't answer, not immediately at least…

It's much later, her hair dried, wearing one of his pajamas and sipping onto a cocoa he forces in her hands and sitting on his bed while he leans at the opposite wall that she answers his questions. The ones he asks and also the ones he doesn't.

"I _do _love him." She says and one day, just one of these days he's going to go kill Chuck Bass.

"He told me today" she continues and he isn't sure whether she even realizes that he is there, "that he needs me. That I'm the only one who understands him. He wants me to forgive him for _everything_"

She looks up then, straight at him, her eyes unblinking, "What should I do?"

And really, this takes the cake. How is he to answer that? He wants to tell her that Chuck Bass deserves to rot in hell, because he really does but he also knows that she is hear admitting that she's still in love with him. How can he ever answer her?

She doesn't wait for one though, shrugging a bit, she lies on his bed, closing her eyes briefly as he continues his stand by the wall.

She finally gets up and looks at him with a look he has never really seen before and tells him about how she had once willed herself to be traded for a hotel for Chuck Bass. He knows of it, even been told by her that he was not allowed to make a joke of it but what he hasn't known is the part where she blames herself for it. She actually believes what that bastard has told her, that because she had gone to Jack Bass on her own account meant that she had been more than willing to get herself sold. It's eerie, more so because, not once during her narration does she blink or flinch. It's a cold commentary like voice and at that moment he realizes that he really had been wrong about Blair Waldorf.

He didn't think that she had in her to ever love anyone more than herself and boy! Had he been wrong? With that realization comes two more thoughts…

One, He knows that Chuck Bass isn't the man to deserve to be at the receiving end of that love…

Second, that he would do anything to try and be that man …

"Am I that awful Humphrey?" She asks, breaking into his thought, "Tell me, do I now fit right into your description of the devil's incarnation?"

So when he crosses the small distance between them and lifts her up on her feet to wrap his arms around her and feels her put down her defenses he knows that it's true that he has never really belonged with anything or _anyone _associated with the Upper East Side…And yet right now, in this miniscule moment right there, with Blair's arms around him in the most awkward way possible, he feels that perhaps this is where he could belong forever…

* * *

They decide to take a holiday together. Away from everyone.

And even though he's partial to more southern parts of Europe, he suggests Paris to her thinking that she would like it; she however declines the offer. He suspects it has something to do with Chuck again but he'll be the last person to bring up that name when they're in the middle of their first holiday plans.

"Eiffel tower not romantic enough for you Waldorf?" he asks instead.

She rolls her eyes, "Really Humphrey, a hideous metallic tower is your idea of romance?"

He laughs because he agrees, "So what else do you have in mind?"

She beams up at him, "Italy!"

He laughs some more, "The Roman Holiday, Blair! You'll probably expect me to ride you around in a Vespa now."

"It does fit though…" She says smiling happily at him, "I'm the classy princes while you're the crass Journalist."

He says something appropriately sarcastic in return even though he wonders if she has realized the significance of her words… Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck didn't really have their happily ever after at the end of that movie.

So, when she decides to get a haircut like Audrey's character in the movie at one of the local barber shops in Rome he can't help but laugh.

When she returns clutching her beautiful tresses in her hand and claiming that she can never part with them he laughs even harder. He doesn't remember the last time he has been so happy.

In Florence, they quote Dante to each other and in Tuscany they watch the sunset together.

No one mentions home and he wonders if he should tell her that he thinks he is falling in love with her.

Their last night in Italy, before they head back to the States, he is standing at the patio, waiting for her to get ready for dinner and he is left speechless when she does come.

She smiles almost shyly at the look he gives her and he knows it as a surety then that he _is_ absolutely in love with her.

It is however much later, when they return back to their room and he has his lips somewhere at her throat, the delicate strap of her dress falling from his fingers that he almost says it aloud to her.

He realizes that he has in fact said it aloud only when she stills and pushes at him gently…

He looks at her questioningly, eyes searching for an answer while she refuses to look at him straight, "Chuck." He answers for her.

He walks out of the room quietly when she doesn't say anything to prove him wrong.

* * *

He is standing at her penthouse, in the same place where it had all begun…

"Are you back with him?" He asks.

She doesn't answer, even though he doesn't need an answer. It's all over Gossip Girl and it's sickeningly sweet and romantic. However, he would have liked to hear her deny it.

She doesn't.

"Tell me Blair. Tell me once and God help me but I _will _fight for you. To the end, if it takes, but you have to tell me that it would be worth it."

She shakes her head slowly, "I don't want you to fight for me."

"What do you want from me then?" He asks.

"I want you to let me go." She whispers back, so softly that he hardly hears her. But he does and so he answers in a tight, clipped but controlled voice, for in spite of all the anger and the hurt, he has never been the one to raise his voice, "It's not like you need my permission Blair."

"I'm not asking for one." She says in her usual tone and he thinks that probably this tenor of hers would never leave his head, "I'm asking for assistance Humphrey. I don't think I can do this alone."

He laughs, short and bitter and if it hadn't been so tragic he would have found it funny, "As a friend and peer and not as an underling?"

She smiles slightly and mumbles the words back to him like she had done earlier so many months ago and they laugh… For a few seconds they do nothing but laugh and Dan takes in every little details of that and etches them into his memory.

He shrugs finally, his face falling back into its carefully rehearsed blankness, "Go then. You have my assistance." He smiles at what he is about to say next, the bloody irony of it not lost on him, "You have my approval Blair, blessings even. Now, just go."

She doesn't move a muscle and for long moments they just continue to stare at each other, his writer's mind wallowing in the tensed moment. Someone had rightly said that inspiration often came in the middle of extreme situations; he knows now that one day he would write about this deafening silence.

She is first to break it, "you said so yourself" she reminds him, "Chuck and Blair , Blair and Chuck."

"No, Blair." he corrects her, "those were your words. All I had said was that I think that you deserved to be happy."

Silence engulfs them once again and for two people who always had something to say to each other they're an awefully quite lot.

I'm sorry" She finally sighs and her voice is small and weak, "I'm sorry Humphrey. It's not your fault and I didn't want to hurt you but I.."

"Stop it." He cuts in and by the look on Blair's face he assumes that she is as shocked as him to find that his voice has finally increased an octave higher. He brings it down and continues calmly, "I know. It's not you it's me, blah blah blah." He looks at her seriously, "Please Blair, don't insult me by being all patronizing about it."

He is relieved when she doesn't protest and leaves without another word.

* * *

It would be an understatement to say that he is shocked to see Chuck Bass at his door one fine day. Funny, how in so many years he has come to accept everything but this man…Now for more reasons than before.

It is therefore the surprise which slows his reflexes and Chuck's punch lands neatly on his jaw.

"What the hell, Bass?"

"I had to pay you back some day." The other man answers.

"That's why you're here? To pay back for black eyes?" Dan asks, painfully holding his jaw. He doesn't make a move to fight back though mainly because in spite of what he has just done, Chuck Bass doesn't look like he has come all the way to Brooklyn for a fist fight.

"No." Chuck answers, "I'm here to talk about Blair."

Dan stills, the pain in his jaw forgotten momentarily as another one comes to wrench at his heart. It has been three months since he has last seen her, since he has been avoiding UES like a plague and she has decided not to cross the Brooklyn Bridge ever again. But he braces himself for whatever Chuck has to say, he doesn't know though how is he to respond if Chuck decides to confront him about what had made him go after _his _woman.

How is he to explain to this man that at time, for that week in Italy and the ones before that in New York he had rightfully thought Blair Waldorf to be his?

So don't blame him for wanting to pinch himself when all Chuck says is a thank you.

"What?"

"Thank you." Chuck repeats. "I…I know. Blair told me…" He trails off before gathering himself and continuing, "She was upset, mainly to do with me and you were there to take care of her. Thank you for that."

Dan nods. What was he supposed to say anyway? That he was welcome? That he was just trying to be a good friend? Offer the man a beer and ask him whether he wanted to catch a game someday?

He doesn't even get the chance to laugh at the thought as Chuck offers him a curt nod for a greeting before leaving.

And that for a very very long time is all he ever sees of UES.

* * *

_AN- Don't worry, I'm a Dair fan…I do have another chapter in mind (Set somewhere ten years later or so.) But that is if you guys do want it. Let me know…._

_Please, please review. You have no idea how happy they make me._


	2. Chapter 2

_AN- First of all, thanks for the response to the earlier chapter, I finally have the second and final chapter of the story ready. However, the entire style of this chapter is quite different from the earlier one and I did try it from various angles but now it's 5 AM and I don't think I can make any more alterations to it. Somehow the drama has becoeme a little more subtle this time but perhaps that's a good thing. A sign of maturity of the fifteen years that have lapsed._

_And if anyone of you have seen the movie Before Sunset, then you would know my insipiration._

_That being said, I do hope you enjoy it._

* * *

Dan Humphrey is a realistically satisfied man. Not jubilantly happy or youthfully gleeful, but he was, for a man of thirty six, as said before, realistically satisfied.

He has had three of his novels published and even though they did not win any of the awards he had once dreamt of, they, combined with his job at The Washington Post, paid the bills and the occasional luxury.

It was quite alright.

Of course he had been surprised to find that his first, a much loved story of two star crossed lovers had found its way to the paperback section for young adults.

He had been aiming for Romeo and Juliet and had landed up selling a Sweet Valley…

His publisher however had been ecstatic, continually reminding Dan of how they had reached just short of Twilight. Dan had not been amused and thereby for his second, he did not even pretend to try and the novel landed the same fate as his first.

He had politely smiled through all the press conferences following the success.

After a three year break, for his third though, he decided to be a bit more adventurous. But, his Animal Farm inspired, personification of the immigrant problem of America had been termed as one of the biggest bores of English Literature.

'_Boring and bland attempt at intellectuality is not what we have come to expect from Daniel Humphrey; Give us a young at heart gossip novel again and we just may forgive him for it'_

"They don't know where to fit it, Dan. Even the Children sections have rejected it." His publisher had told him and Dan had just laughed; his laugh, surprisingly holding no bitterness.

He wasn't surprised; He had lost the will to write a long time ago…None, but the second draw on his desk in knowledge of the stacks of paper he collected when he did write about her.

It was his secret…Their secret.

Not like he never saw her after the day she left him at her penthouse. He did, occasionally at all those social gathering he was obligated to make to as Lily's step son. Always at the arm of Chuck Bass, Blair had looked radiant. And then he moved to Washington right after NYU and the occasions of silent nods for greeting and memories of a week in Italy shared only through avert glances, became even more sparse and in between.

The last he had seen of her was a good ten years back; He was with Serena then, in the final of their 'maybe we can still make it work' relationship phase…

That was then and now, here he was in London, sipping a coffee at an overly expensive cafe at Knightsbridge as he waits to get to Heathrow to go back to States.

That is when he sees her…

It isn't her and yet it is her…Same brown hair catching the same light to turn a shade lighter, same light brown eyes, alive with laughter and the same UES disdain. Oh! God, she even wore a hair band over her curls.

"Mom…This creepy man is staring at me."

Dan's pulled out of his day dream as the little girl he had been staring at, shrieks for help.

"_What's that Sweety?"_ comes a voice from the corner which is hidden from his clear line of vision and he all but freezes. _That _voice he can recognize anywhere in the world.

"Mr….?" The voice says as its owner stands up to confront what she probably thinks is some kind of sick pervert. "Oh! God! _Humphrey_? Is that you?

* * *

Is it supposed to be weird sitting opposite her after so many years? Sipping coffee like time had just walked backwards?

What is weird though is that it's not weird at all.

"She has your looks, Waldorf." Dan comments as Blair officially introduces her seven years old daughter, Emma to him.

"And her father's cheekiness." She retorts as the little girl refuses to shake the hand Dan offers.

Dan laughs, withdrawing his hand. He's not offended. Not in the least.

Because it's not Chuck that he sees in her.

Like Mother, Like Daughter.

"Oh, C'mon Blair. At seven even you would have not shook my hand."

He chuckles some more when she agrees.

* * *

They decide to walk to the school Emma has to go for her ballet lessons to and Dan can't help but smile.

Of course. Blair's daughter would of course be taking ballet lessons.

He's however absolutely fascinated at the sight of Blair holding her daughters hand protectively in her own as they make their way through Brompton Road. He can see it clearly that Blair's not going to be an Eleanor to Emma.

He sighs. The sorrow of not having his own children, when he so adored them catching up with him at moments such as these. He was glad though. What really was the point of running a nursery with someone you once used to get along with?

It's a strange and bitter thought and he observes the mother-daughter pair in front of him a little more closely. Trying to decipher how she managed it so well single handedly.

He has known of the divorce; it had made the papers after all. What he had not known was that since her separation with Chuck a year back, she had been living in London.

Their wedding had been _the _social event of the decade, one he had politely declined to attend even though Nate had bought personally written invites.

His excuse had turned out to be prophetic though because he did become busy with previous engagements that month. His to be exact.

He had been dating Ashley for the past year and a half then and hearing that Blair was getting married had finally let loose whatever it was that had been holding him back from making the move.

For someone who lived on symbolism of events he had refused to see the connection.

Ashley was everything he had though he was obsessed with…Blonde to begin with and then she had had an infectious, loud laugh. And she did not have any connections what so ever with the UES or even Manhattan for that.

It had seemed perfect, even had been for some time; so, no. he has no idea when they had fallen in a routine instead of the whirlwind romance he had always anticipated he would finally settle for.

"So? How has married life been treating you, Humphrey?" Blair asks him as they leave Emma at her school and he's mildly taken aback by her acuteness with guessing his mood. But then he does remember her having a knack for it.

"Fantastic." He says, grinning stupidly at her, "Absolutely great. Couldn't have been better."

She smiles enigmatically at him at that, "That bad, huh?"

He sighs in submission, who was he trying to fool in any case? "You have no idea."

She smiles at him again and it's with a sudden pang that Dan Humphrey realizes that that was probably what he had missed the most in all those years.

That and the eye roll she makes when she glances down at his feet, "apparently becoming a novelist has done nothing for your fashion sense Humphrey. Don't you know that suede is not to be teemed with black trousers?"

He chuckles. You could take a Blair Waldorf out of the UES but you could never take out the UES out of Blair Waldorf and as the wind catches her hair, he realizes that he had been fooling himself by finding a _normal_ girl for himself. Once entangled, no one could ever escape the hold of the life he had though he had left behind.

"Haven't you heard Blair," he continues though, "_Failed _novelist."

"Oh! Don't be so dramatic, Humphrey. My daughter's a huge fan of the classics you were aiming at."

* * *

There are at her apartment and she insists that he take at least a cup of the England's finest Earl Grey before leaving.

"You know, you still haven't told me what you're doing in London." She asks as she puts some water up for heating for both of them.

"Inspiration." He tells her honestly, "I was put on her forced holiday to go find myself before I sit down to write my next novel."

"Has it been of any help?" she asks and he is still contemplating how to answer that when his eyes fall on her book shelves. The Age of Innocence lying right next to what he recognizes as the three of his own books.

With a sudden lump in his throat he asks her, "You've read them?"

"Read what?" she asks from the kitchen.

"My books, Blair."

She makes an appearance then, smiling a little at him, "I have."

How weird is that he only feels a sense of relief when she tells him that no, she does not think that any of them were what he was meant to write. That she did believe that in spite of the success of the first two and the utter failure of his third, they were not a reflection of who he had once been.

He had always known that she would know.

He wonders, if he should tell her now about all that he did write like he used to write before. All those of which he hadn't had the heart to share with the world.

He answers her earlier question instead, "Yes I think I did find myself here."

* * *

"Too bad, you don't have time for a movie Humphrey."

He glances at his watch. He should be at the airport in two hours time and considering that Heathrow was a long way off, he would have to leave soon if he didn't want to miss his flight.

"Is your collection still as great?"

"Oh! Of course." She says while they both browse through it.

"Merchant Ivory? Still?" He says, picking up a copy of the Householder to inspect.

"Put that back immediately, Humphrey. I will not have this conversation again with you."

He chuckles at her scrounged up nose, "maybe I should take one of these to the flight. I can never mange to sleep in a flight and across the Atlantic is a long way off. Perhaps this would help me doze."

She says something sarcastic in return and he is as always amused at how they can fight about a common passion for old classics.

They flip through her collection together, occasionally bantering if the movie did not make both their lists and more often getting into a detailed criticism of it if they did find it to be an interest to both of them.

She keeps pushing her hair behind her hair as she laughs or scowls at his comments while unknown to him he ideally fiddles with the wedding ring on his finger as they fall back into a long forgotten comfort zone.

"You'll miss your flight. You know." She says casually as she picks up another Audrey Hepburn from her collection.

"I know." He says, his hand still fiddling with his ring.

* * *

_AN- Yes, it's an open ending but I did think this was the best place to leave it at. What do you think? Would Dan go back to Ashley or would he stay in London?_

_Please review, they make me ecstatic._


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